Side Hustle Pro

Side Hustle Pro spotlights bold black women entrepreneurs who have scaled from side hustle to profitable business. Join Chief Side Hustler turned full-time entrepreneur Nicaila Matthews Okome for your weekly installment of Side Hustle Pro and learn actionable strategies to start small and get going–wherever and whoever you are. Side Hustle Pro features interviews with inspiring black women entrepreneurs including interviews with Myleik Teele of CurlBox, Lisa Price of Carol's Daughter, Nicole Walters of The Monetized Life, Maya Elious of Built to Impact, and more!

On this episode, we are welcoming back Meiko Drew, the Side Hustle Pro Entrepreneur-in-Residence. We’re following Meiko for an entire year to chronicle her journey from Corporate America retiree to the Founder of Food and Lifestyle brand MeikoAndTheDish. For those of you who don’t know, Meiko walked away from a six-figure salary at Target to focus on Meiko And The Dish full time. Though it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, her brand is steadily rising and so it’s time to check in with her again to see how it’s all going. On this episode we talk about:

When you’re starting your own business, the company you keep is more important than ever before. On this episode, I'm answering a listener’s question about how to ignore the haters and find a true entrepreneurship support group. I talk about how I found my own tribe and created a mastermind group, and what you can do to find your own entrepreneurship support system.

I also get into updates on my own side hustle journey, including: what I’m doing to monetize and my new Side Hustle Pro Shop. Tune in to hear my latest updates in this Side Hustle Pro journey! Links mentioned in this episode:

In 2009, Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche lost her job as a preschool teacher. Unable to afford her mortgage, she moved back home with her parents at age 29. At her lowest moment, she was 31 years old, with no job, no money, and no home of her own. After hitting rock bottom, she determined it was time to put the financial wisdom she had learned growing up to good use. In this week’s episode, she shares how she bounced back from financial despair to take charge of her own life and help others do the same. Along the way, she has built a hugely profitable brand and even more, an insanely loyal community of Dream Catchers devoted to her Live Richer principles.

Author of two #1 Amazon bestsellers, The One Week Budget and Live Richer Challenge, Tiffany The Budgetnista and her financial advice have also been featured in The New York Times, Reuters, US News and World Report, the TODAY show, PBS, Fox Business, MSNBC, CBS MoneyWatch, TIME, ESSENCE Magazine, and FORBES.

In this episode, Tiffany breaks down:

The inspiration for The Budgetnista and when she realized she could package and sell her financial wisdom.

How she transitioned from major debt and losing it all to starting her own business.

How she developed and grew the Live Richer Challenge to be a profitable and sustainable business.

How she has grown her private Facebook community to over 100K members.

In 2009, Courtney Sanders found herself drowning in debt, bad grades, and almost having to leave college. Three years later, she had paid off all her debt, earned a scholarship, started a business and graduated from college magna cum laude. How did she turn her life around? Find out on this week’s episode.

Courtney is an entrepreneur, speaker, and goal ­achievement specialist. Through her training and development company, Think & Grow Chick, LLC, Courtney provides online & in-­person education, mentorship, and community for women, students, and minorities looking to accomplish BIG goals. Courtney reaches nearly 50,000 young professionals every month through her blog and social media platforms. In 2015 she authored the book, Get What You Want: The Ultimate Guide to Figuring Out + Getting What You Want in Life which has since served as a catalyst for several related trainings and programs, including her 2015 live workshop, Launch Your Life.

In this this episode, Courtney breaks down:

The inspiration for Think And Grow Chick and when she realized she could help other women

How she grew her company into a profitable business

How she juggles her side hustle with her full time job

The financial wisdom she has learned along the way

When she knew it was time to take her side hustle to the next level

Find out about all Courtney’s experience as a woman who has scaled her side hustle to extraordinary levels and is getting ready to make the leap into full time entrepreneurship.

On this episode, I'm providing an update on how my own side hustle is going. How am I balancing my 9to5 at NPR with my podcast and burgeoning Side Hustle Pro brand and business? I talk about the challenges I’m facing with time management and why I believe time management is a myth. I’m also sharing the best tools I’ve found to help me manage my calendar and organize the Side Hustle Pro process (Shout-out to Amanda Miller Littlejohn for the productivity tips!).

I also get into a strategy that I’m using to build my brand and network: attending strategic conferences. I talk about the hustle bombs I learned from Myleik Teele, CEO of curlBOX:

“A real hustler invests in themselves.”

“If you are not popping or balling, you do not need to be sleeping in.”